Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Have you received an email from "Farrow Smith" at "GoogleUK Cash Give-Aways" saying you won their promotion or lottery promo and to contact "Mr.Stanford Walters of Swift Express Service Couriers" to collect your winnings?
Wow! So, now Google is just giving away money, at pure random to "web searchers" so they can "test email".
Ok, we don't want to sound condescending... but if you fell for this scam, perhaps you shouldn't have a bank account or credit card; this level of gullibility means you're quite likely to get scammed frequently.
And don't get too excited if the names are different; the scammers make many versions of this scam! This one is so full of crap, we could shred it and offer it as fertilizer.
It is actually a very simple scam. They claim you won a promotion, which is giving away millions of dollars based on a randomly selected email address. The scam is obvious: it's simply preposterous to think that any company would give money away randomly to encourage you to buy their product. That would be pointless and self-defeating.
Although the most important clue is that no legitimate lottery, and almost no legitimate sweepstakes or promotions will email a winner, there are many other signs that this is a fraud. We have highlighted some of the more ridiculous claims in the email below, not the least of which are:
Email address ballot: There is no such thing as a "computer ballot system" or "computer email draw". No one, not even Microsoft has a database of email addresses of the type or magnitude they suggest.
Terrible spelling, punctuation, syntax and grammar - Scammers apparently don't know how to use spell checkers. We assume they dropped out of school before that class. They use almost excessive and random CapItaLiZAtion. They often can't even spell "February" or know that "22th" ought to be "22nd". These scammers usually write at the 3rd grade level. Being non-native English speakers, they also often get first names and surnames (last names reversed), so you will frequently see names like "Mr. SMITH JAMES.", instead of "Mr. James Smith", along with the peculiar usage of periods (full stops) and spaces or the lack thereof.
Using free email account: The scammer is writing to you from a FREE email account (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.). Don't you think a real organization would use its own email, its own domain and website? Wouldn't they want to promote that?
Keep Confidential - Real promotions THRIVE on publicity: that's the purpose of them! They don't want you to keep anything secret - the publicity causes people to buy their product. There is NO risk of "double claiming" because they can validate where the ticket numbers were sold. The scammer want you to keep quiet because they don't want the police or ConsumerFraudreporting to hear about them! It should read: "For our own security, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential until we have finished scamming you!"
What are they promoting? No one promotes "world peace" or "use of the internet" by handing out millions to random strangers. And if they are promoting a product or a lottery, then this must be the world's worst promotion, because no one has heard of it, outside of the email you just received. Just giving away money to random people who have an email address wouldn't promote a darn thing! It is a scam!
Pay a fee to collect the prize: Nope, it is illegal for free sweepstakes and promotions to charge you ANYTHING! Of course, in a scam, that is the whole point: to get you to send money to the scammer.
It is a typical scam promotion sweepstakes winning notification. Also see these pages:
From: Online Processing Agent
Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2008 10:47 PM
Subject: Claims Processing Update 09/03/2008 ( you have been officially cleared and approved)
THE GoogleUK GIVE-AWAYS TEAM.
Google UK,North London Business Park (NLBP) Oakleigh Road South , London N11 1NP
TEL:+44 703 196 7682,+44 703 195 8488
Fax:+44 700 597 8372 .
Dear Googler,
Your email was received and duly acknowledged.
I am Farrow Smith, the Give-Aways Processing Agent assigned for the claim process of your funds.Google has successfully organized for the second time a Cash Give-Aways marking her 10th anniversary. Over £20,000, 000.00 (Twenty Million British pounds) are to be given out for this Anniversary Draws. Participants for the draws were randomly selected from a wide range of web searchers who use the Google search engine (Googlers) and other Google ancillary services.
Google is now the biggest search engine worldwide and in an effort to make sure that it remains the most widely used search engine, Google is running an e-mail beta test. Your email address was linked with our Computer Generated Profile Numbers (CGPN) and attached to the following details: Ticket number: 008695757Mr.Stanford Walters of Swift Express Service Couriersxx / Serial numbers: / BTD/807044Mr.Stanford Walters of Swift Express Service CouriersX/06 / Lucky numbers: 12-12-23-35-XX-XX(XX) / (CGPN)7-22-71-XX-XX-XX was picked among our lucky winners to receive £500, 000.00 British pounds.
Winners were selected randomly through a computer ballot system from worldwide users of the Google search engine.On Behalf of the Screening Committee of Google promo TEAM, you are therefore cleared as approved Official beneficiary of £500, 000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand British Pounds) only.You are to come in person to the Disbursements Center of the Google GIVE-AWAYS BOARD with the following requirements:
(a) A printed copy of your WINNING NOTIFICATION
(b) A tax clearance from your local tax office
(c) An Affidavit of age Declaration
(d)police report attesting your patrotism and crime free citizen of your Country
(Note: You are only required to present the above documents only when you are coming down to UK)
In receipt of these requirements your winning cheque will be made available to you after 24hrs as the Cheque will be made in your name and presented to you as soon as you arrive our office.
NB: Inability to meet up with the stipulated dates given due to non availability of some requirements, non-availability of travel documents may result in loss of winnings as funds will be re-used for other next edition.
To prevent this from happening, you can contact : MR. STANFORD WALTERS, Of SWIFT EXPRESS SERVICE affiliated with the Google GIVE-AWAYS Board for assistance in claiming your winnings without you coming down to U.K., He will help you to facilitate your claims and Forward your winnings to you before the next promo edition.
However, Your winnings have been forwarded to the COURIER DEPARTMENT for disbursement. Therefore you are to contact the courier officer within 24 hours from now with your complete datas.
Fill and forward a copy of your Verification/payment form to the below mentioned Courier Company.Endeavour to send along a valid identity proof( drivers licence or passport) to prove your Identity.
CLAIM'S VERIFICATION/PAYMENT FORM
1.FIRST/LAST NAMES:
2.HOME ADDRESS/SEX/AGE:
3.OCCUPATION/TELEPHONE NUMBER/MOBILE:
4.STATE/COUNTRY:
5.PRESENT ADDRESS:
6.Ticket number/Serial numbers:
7.Luckynumbers/(CGPN):
8:Email address(1):______ Email address(2):
****************************** *************** COURIER DISPATCH OFFICE CONTACT INFO.
Mr.Stanford Walters (Dispatch Officer)
Hotline:+44 703 193 0187
Fax :+44 870 479 1652
Email:>dispatchoffice@swift-exp.co.uk
****************************** *************** YOU MUST CALL THE HELP DESK OF SWIFT EXPRESS COURIER SERVICE AFTER SENDING EMAIL TO ENABLE THEM GIVE YOU URGENT ATTENTION.
Also be inform that the services(delivery) that will be rendered to you by the Courier Company will be handled by you the Winner and not the Lottery Board if you are unable to visit us personally. This means you will have to adhere to all instructions from this company on how to finalise the final process.
Regards
Mr. Farrow Smith
PROCESSING AGENT 2008
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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